Search Results

A new local blog, the Tuluwat Examiner, reveals that Eureka loudmouth Rob Arkley has redirected his website marinacenter.org — which once featured fancy still and animated renderings of a Home Depot-based mall — to his generic Security National www address.

The Examiner has a timeline of key events in the Marina Center saga which despite all the money, threats, fake-o ballot measures and puppet politicians has lead exactly nowhere while Arkley himself continues to stonewall the Coastal Commission on his much fought-over project. And, of course, the Balloon Track site remains a toxic, leaky mess polluting Humboldt Bay.

Election season in Eureka is resurrecting the corpse of Rob Arkley’s Marina Center — the proposed big box mall-on-Humboldt-Bay that will breathe new life into Old Town with tourists and newcomers whose minds will blow and wallets unfold at the sight of a Home Depot beside a massive asphalt parking lot. Just wait.

Deeper depths of innovation heretofore unplunged, folks.

The last liberal hold-out on the Eureka City Council, Linda Atkins, is being challenged by a Republican — one who hasn’t even switched parties because such levels of deceit are no longer necessary in Eureka.

Atkins will face Joe Bonino, who says the Marina Center mall will be a boon to Old Town.

Eureka Mayor Frank Jager is ready to lead the flock with nary a dissenting voice. Bonino “would be a better fit for the way the council is constituted now,” he said about the 4-1 ratio of Arkley back-rubbers to the un-kool-aided.

Arkley surely finds comfort in the fact that his long campaign of bullshit surrounding the Marina Center has nearly won him a 5-0 majority on the Eureka City Council, and a majority of the Humboldt Board of Supervisors.

Two years ago Arkley paid $30,000 to put a fake-o measure on the ballot promising Marina Center Now!, which achieved nothing but the election of the dimly-lit “Brady Bunch.”

Ever playing the victim, Arkley has long-blamed liberal meanies on the Coastal Commission for blocking his genius plan, but in reality his own stonewalling caused the delays of which he complains.

It’s been quiet on the Marina Center front of late, but the political game of chess plays on, and the pawns are in their places. If there is need of a check-mate at city hall, Arkley already has it. But that one-party system envisioned by Karl Rove is not yet complete in Eureka. And what better way to bring the Home Depot mall back into public discussion than with a GOPer who is already cozy with the local Good Old Boy power network.

The Eureka City Council will vote tonight to amend the city’s Local Coastal Program land use plan to allow Rob Arkley’s big box mall, otherwise known as the Marina Center. The amendment is based on the successful passage of Measure N last November, which promised “Marina Center Now!”

The amendment could have been adopted months ago by a vote of the City Council, but Councilmember Marian Brady needed a campaign issue.

Following Tuesday’s meeting the amendment will be forwarded to the California Coastal Commission for certification. Good luck with that.

Local conservative Chris Crawford is stepping up to head the campaign in support of Measure N, which will take Eureka’s temperature on the proposed Marina Center development. The Journalhas the details.

Crawford sent out a call to arms that included the following:

Passing Measure N is a necessary first step in transforming this blighted property into the Marina Center.

“Necessary” is a funny word since it’s — well — not. It could be passed by a vote of the city council, and there is no question the council would approve it pronto.

Measure N will change the land use designation – it is now zoned public which would allow a cemetery, jail or sewage plant to be placed there. If passed, the zoning would be changed to one which would allow the Marina Center development

Again, not true. A majority “Yes” vote will not ensure the zoning change. That’s up to the Coastal Commission.

while excluding a “supercenter discount store.”

Big deal. As written, if approved by the Coastal Commission, the exclusion would still allow a WalMart as proposed and voted down by Eureka residents in 1999.

The first Yes on N event will be Saturday, Aug 7 from 10am-noon at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts.

Glass and Leonard joined DJ Mike Dronkers and Humboldt Baykeeper head honcho Pete Nichols for the discussion.

There doesn’t appear to be any disagreement that the measure, even if passed, will have no bearing on whether the project moves forward. Nichols called November’s vote a “survey monkey,” or an internet poll. The project still has to go through the California Coastal Commission no matter what, and Leonard agrees the vote won’t influence that process.

Despite repeated statements by city staff at the May 18th Eureka City Council meeting that the proposed ballot measure would only contemplate zoning changes for the Balloon Track property, the project itself will now take a role in the measure.

According to the Council agenda for June 16th, the measure will ask for zoning changes “as proposed” for the project, and would also “prohibit ‘Discount Superstores.'”

But! Because this whole thing is a big charade anyway (see below), there’s also a loophole that would allow the Council to “amend or repeal specific limitations on development after 10 years” — such as the “Discount Superstore” ban.

Citing economic woes, Security National representative Randy Gans asked the Eureka City Council Tuesday to put zoning for the Balloon Track and other issues regarding SN’s proposed “Marina Center” big box mall before the voters.

In a prepared speech, Gans hit a flurry of civic buzz terms like jobs, taxes, parks, roads, schools, public safety and quality of life before suggesting an “alternative,” which he called a “tax revenue and job creating measure” for the November ballot.

The surprise request came during a regular council report by Councilman Mike Jones, who introduced Gans to the podium. Following Gans’ comments Jones asked whether the council could vote immediately or if they’d have to wait until the next agenda. As seen with Councilman Jeff Leonard’s last-minute-lettergate — another hasty political maneuver on behalf of Security National — the council may only act when an item is on the agenda.

Council Clerk Pam Powell said the city has other ballot items to submit to the elections office including the soon-to-be-vacant council seats held by Jones and Leonard, and amendments to the city’s charter. She said the council has until the first week of June to finalize and submit the measure.

Gans said regardless of the outcome, SN would continue work toward getting the necessary permits — an odd statement since everyone from the city to the Water Board to the Citizens for Real Economic Growth believe SN is stonewalling the Coastal Commission in the process that would produce the permits.

Gans said the quickest way through the quagmire is the legal system, but he is confident in SN’s various courtroom battles over the property and project.

If this sounds confusing, it is. Look for clarification at the May 18th city council meeting. The Humboldt Herald will publish proposed language for the ballot measure if it surfaces before then.